I wanted to lament here about the demise of the PPR back, but I did some digging and these target numbers aren’t all that different than previous seasons. With Darren Sproles and LeSean McCoy getting hurt and Arian Foster not seeing as many targets this season, there just aren’t the dominant receiving backs of past seasons. But every little bit can help in fantasy.

Darren Sproles is back and that’s good news for PPR’ers around the nation. He leads all running backs in targets over the last four games and he didn’t even play in one of them. You start him in PPR and say thank you.

Arian Foster’s targets and receptions have been more consistent over the last five games than they have been all season. In those five games he has 22 receptions and in the eight games before that, he had 12 (with one 6 reception game). He hasn’t been that productive after the catch, but in PPR leagues, that’s a nice addition.

Trent Richardson is averaging a paltry 3.5 yards per carry this season, but has 10 total touchdowns and ranks fifth in receptions with 45. That’s huge for his overall fantasy value, especially when he’s not breaking long runs.

Ronnie Brown is fourth in running back receptions with 46, which sounds good, but doesn’t do much for fantasy when you have 529 total yards on the season and no touchdowns. Even in PPR leagues he’s outside the top 35.

Knowshon Moreno has a ton going for him in fantasy. He’s getting a full load of carries each week and averaging almost 5 targets a game. And he’s caught four passes each of the last three games. He may not be Adrian Peterson (I mean there’s no way in Hades anyone would ever mistake him for Adrian Peterson), but he’s the every down back in a great offense, talk about lucky.

Bryce Brown stabbed us all in the heart last week and then twisted the serrated blade around a little and then squirted some lemon juice in there for fun. BUT, he’s getting targets!! Whoo hooo! The good news is, those huge games before last week weren’t a figment of our imagination (I don’t think) and like Moreno, he’s getting targets, and unlike Moreno, he has special skills.

I’ve been a BenJarvus-Green Ellis non-supporter for a long while now, but hey, the guy is doing work, and he’s actually catching the ball some! Seven receptions in the last two games for The Law Firm is like Larry Centers took over his body.

Adrian Peterson is pretty good at football, at least that’s what people tell me. And this season he only needs six more receptions to break his career best of 43 when He Who Shall Not Be Named was throwing to him.

Hello Rotoworlders! I have some target info below here if you are interested. We’ll start with the wide receivers, then the tight ends and then all the way down to the lowly running backs. Then we’ll go out for brunch, maybe do some Christmas shopping and see The Hobbit (no, I don’t know Danny Woodhead). After that, well, it’ll probably be a little weird since we don’t know each other all that well. So, let’s just cut our losses.

Over the last four games, the Detroit Lions lost Ryan Broyles and Titus Young Sr. One to injury and one to insanity. But whatever the reason, Calvin Johnson has become the target king over the last quarter of the season. You know this, I know this and the American people, well, I guess they mostly know this. But do they know that he is on pace to beat Jerry Rice’s receiving yardage record for a single season? Do they!? Victor Cruz leads the NFC wide receivers in Pro Bowl voting. I usually don’t care about the super-rigged and biased Pro Bowl, but come on people.

Danario Alexander is the biggest news in the wide receiver target world lately (all my target friends are absolutely a twitter). He’s the seventh ranked targeteer (my word, don’t steal it). That’s pretty good for someone the wide receiver depleted Rams let go during training camp. His skill set has always been that of a #1 receiver, but his knees were those of an 81 year old man. Now that he is healthy, he is the no doubt #1 receiver for the Chargers and he’s playing like one.

The Rams lost their actual #1 receiver, Danny Amendola, and rookie Chris Givens got the call. He’s the tenth targeteer (hey!) over the last four weeks and has shown ability on all areas of the field. In the right matchups he’s a valuable fantasy player. Amendola could return this week though, and that would put a hurtin’ on his value for Week 15.

The duo of Cecil Shorts and Justin Blackmon was looking pretty good, as they complemented each other’s strengths, but then Shorts went and got himself concussed. It helped Blackmon’s targets, but he has trouble separating and needs a player like Shorts to stretch the field.

With the “quarterbacks” the Cardinals are carrying around, Larry Fitzgerald could average ONE MILLION targets a game and still be a fantasy football black hole.

I’m gong to start with Hakeem Nicks here, because the bye skews his numbers. Even on a bum body, he is still getting his work in. He has more targets during this span than Victor Cruz, but Cruz’s health keeps him in the fantasy points lead. It looks like they’ll freeze wrap Nicks during the week to keep him fresh for games. If Danario can do it, anyone can!

Vincent Jackson averages over 20 yards a reception, so these target numbers are working out ok for him. He can’t overcome shut down corners like Champ Bailey, but give him a little space and he’s going to catch a bomb or two or three.

I’m a little befuddled and baffled and I also feel a slight bit bamboozled by the targets Donnie (not much ballgame) Avery continues to see over the more talented T.Y. Hilton, but it’s still a thing. But a thing that we have to go ahead and ignore, because Hilton is the better player and has a better chance of coming up with big plays.

‘When Targets Deceive’ should be the title of Anquan Boldin’s Week 14 bio pic. On just three targets, Boldin had three receptions for 72 yards and two touchdowns, while the younger and guy on my fantasy team, Torrey Smith, had three targets, catching one for 21 yards. Boldin has finally started to find the end zone over the last two weeks and is also getting more targets than Smith, weird.

Mike Wallace has had his downs and ups and a few more downs, but snapped out of a big down with seven receptions on 11 targets for 112 yards and two touchdowns. This spike in production was helped by Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown returning and there’s no reason not to tap into a possible hot streak.

It’s nice to see Jeremy Maclin back with the living. His 13 targets last week paid off well. It didn’t hurt that they faced Tampa Bay’s poor pass defense, but fake points are fake points! He’s the best receiver they have and Nick Foles knows that. Foles Knows? I don’t think Bo will allow it.

Kendall Wright sure gets a bunch of targets. Now if he could catch and subsequently score, that would help. In his last three games he has reception totals of 5, 6, and 7, but his yardage and lack of touchdowns make him hard to start.

Marques Colston has hit a bit of a target slide, which is similar to an electric slide in that you don’t score many fantasy points while doing it. In the last five weeks he’s gotten into the end zone twice, but during that span he hasn’t hit double digit fantasy points in standard leagues. That is not helping. Let’s hope Tampa’s secondary in the Superdome is the remedy.

When you get down to this level of targets your chances of consistent success aren’t, how do I say good? Oh right, good. Brandon Lloyd has been the opposite of good to us fake football players all season (while on American soil), that is until we completely give up on him. He had totaled 126 yards and zero touchdowns in the four games before he went for 86 yards and a touchdown against the Texans. Is this the start of a streak or an anomaly?

Kenny Britt, much like Brandon Lloyd, broke out last week after doing next to nothing all season. He’s seen an uptick in targets, but gets a tough matchup against the Jets secondary this week. We’ll really be able to see if he’s turned a corner if he can play well against Cromartie and company.

Tight ends have been maddeningly inconsistent this season. So much depends on consistent targets, but even more depends on getting that ball over the goal line securely. With very few tight ends getting into the end zone Gronk-style, we are stuck with the hope that they will get enough yards and receptions in PPR, to keep us from a minefield of goose eggs. Jason Witten has been able to consistently help us out in PPR leagues, but his lack of touchdowns have hurt in standard leagues. And then last week he dips down to four targets like some run-of-the-mill Anthony Fasano! But from his body of work this season I think we can safely say those numbers will increase this week, and hopefully he can sneak into the end zone!

To examine for you the state of the tight end, just take a look at Tony Scheffler and Brandon Pettigrew. Both are in the top-five for targets over the last four weeks and they are on the same team and Pettigrew was hurt last week and put up a nasty nil. There just aren’t many stud tight ends out there that are commanding consistent targets. The Lions have lost many of their wide receivers and since they throw the ball 45.5 times a game, it has to go somewhere. If Pettigrew can’t play in Arizona this weekend, Calvin Johnson and Tony Scheffler may see the ball a whole lot.

Brandon Myers let us down in a big way last week, but he’s actually seen so much work and produced enough in conjunction with that work, that he’s still one of the safer tight ends in the league. That’s not saying all that much, but that’s what I’m saying.

Jimmy Graham doesn’t look quite right to me, but neither has Drew Brees since Graham came back from his ankle sprain. He’s getting enough targets and he’s in an offense that can turn it on at any time, that you just play him and go about your business.

In a tight end world of inconsistency lives one man, a man with many tattoos and incoherent touchdown dances, a man called Aaron Hernandez. Now that Hernandez is back, we have a glimmer of hope in this cruel world where Vernon Davis and Antonio Gates live outside the top-12 in fantasy points even though they’ve been healthy all season. Hernandez is getting his targets, looks healthy, just put up a big game and doesn’t have as much target competition on his team anymore. He’s my number one tight end the rest of the short way.

And the list of the inconsistent grows deeper. When I look at this second list I have to go to the ‘what have you done for me lately’ file and there’s just one player under the alias, The Black Unicorn. When he’s not saving people from certain death, he’s giving his teams fantasy points, which most teams have forgotten they are allowed at the TE position. Martellus Bennett is second in fantasy points per game over the last four games and with Hakeem Nicks not 100%, he should continue to see looks, especially in the red zone.

Antonio Gates has actually seen 16 targets over the last two weeks. They haven’t produced much in the way of fantasy points, but at least he’s getting targets. Gates, Bennett and Hernandez are the most consistent targeteers over that short span.

Ben Watson has shown flashes of talent off and on over his whole career, so this last bit of production from him is suspect, but it is production. He’s averaging four receptions a game over the last four games and had a two touchdown game against Dallas. I just got bored typing that.

I wanted to lament here about the demise of the PPR back, but I did some digging and these target numbers aren’t all that different than previous seasons. With Darren Sproles and LeSean McCoy getting hurt and Arian Foster not seeing as many targets this season, there just aren’t the dominant receiving backs of past seasons. But every little bit can help in fantasy.

Darren Sproles is back and that’s good news for PPR’ers around the nation. He leads all running backs in targets over the last four games and he didn’t even play in one of them. You start him in PPR and say thank you.

Arian Foster’s targets and receptions have been more consistent over the last five games than they have been all season. In those five games he has 22 receptions and in the eight games before that, he had 12 (with one 6 reception game). He hasn’t been that productive after the catch, but in PPR leagues, that’s a nice addition.

Trent Richardson is averaging a paltry 3.5 yards per carry this season, but has 10 total touchdowns and ranks fifth in receptions with 45. That’s huge for his overall fantasy value, especially when he’s not breaking long runs.

Ronnie Brown is fourth in running back receptions with 46, which sounds good, but doesn’t do much for fantasy when you have 529 total yards on the season and no touchdowns. Even in PPR leagues he’s outside the top 35.

Knowshon Moreno has a ton going for him in fantasy. He’s getting a full load of carries each week and averaging almost 5 targets a game. And he’s caught four passes each of the last three games. He may not be Adrian Peterson (I mean there’s no way in Hades anyone would ever mistake him for Adrian Peterson), but he’s the every down back in a great offense, talk about lucky.

Bryce Brown stabbed us all in the heart last week and then twisted the serrated blade around a little and then squirted some lemon juice in there for fun. BUT, he’s getting targets!! Whoo hooo! The good news is, those huge games before last week weren’t a figment of our imagination (I don’t think) and like Moreno, he’s getting targets, and unlike Moreno, he has special skills.

I’ve been a BenJarvus-Green Ellis non-supporter for a long while now, but hey, the guy is doing work, and he’s actually catching the ball some! Seven receptions in the last two games for The Law Firm is like Larry Centers took over his body.

Adrian Peterson is pretty good at football, at least that’s what people tell me. And this season he only needs six more receptions to break his career best of 43 when He Who Shall Not Be Named was throwing to him.